Experimental Colon Carcinogens and Their Mode of Action

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Abstract
A number of distinct animal models of colon cancer, induced by chemicals and operating by different metabolic and biochemical mechanisms, are available for studying the pathogenesis of colon cancer and comparing it to similar stages of the disease seen in man. Additionally, these animal models provide unique tools for systematic studies of the risk factors observed in the human setting and for determining whether or not the suspected association actually can be reproduced under highly controlled laboratory conditions. If this is the case, the risk factor can then be investigated in greater detail through various multidisciplinary approaches in respect to its operating mechanisms. In turn, the combined results obtained through human studies and animal models provide a powerful, convincing argument for modification of the risk factors so as to lower the disease incidence in the human setting. Thus, as is described in this monograph by others, a number of major elements observed in humans, such as the enhancing effect on colon carcinogenesis due to fat or the protective effect of certain fibers, selenium derivatives, or antioxidants, could not have been established without careful, deliberate investigations carried out in available animal models.